‘Physical 100,’ Global Hit Korean Competition Show, Heads for Second Season at Netflix

Nina Dobrev kicks up her heel behind her while leaning into longtime love Shaun White at the premiere of her new Netflix movie, The Out-Laws.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Some 18 film industry guilds and trade associations are calling for urgent structural reform of the Busan International Film Festival. They point out that this year’s edition of the festival is looming less than 100 days away. The festival’s management has made a succession of management missteps in recent weeks, including one that resulted in an official apology. At the beginning of May, a decision to split the festival’s senior management in two by creating a new position for Cho Jongkook, was followed by consternation among guilds and the resignation of festival director Huh Moonyoung.

Pete Davidson will remain on TV screens for another season of his Peacock series “Bupkis”.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief KC Global Media, a leading multi-territory operator of linear TV channels in Asia, has sold Animax Korea to Aniplus, an Asian multinational television channel and anime distributor based in Singapore and South Korea. The deal “aims to elevate Animax Korea’s offerings while focusing on horizontally integrating its content across Aniplus’ platform and reach,” the companies said. The deal was agreed in April, but was subject to regulatory approvals. These have now been obtained. Deal terms were not disclosed. But sources close to the transaction suggest that it was valued at some KRW46 billion ($35.5 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Twelve,” an award-winning Australian crime drama series, has been greenlighted for a second season. It is backed by the Foxtel group and its streaming brand Binge. The show follows a controversial murder trial seen through the lens of the jurors, twelve ordinary Australians who are facing their own realities and struggles. The first season received ten nominations, and won three AACTA Awards in 2022 including best miniseries. In recent days, it became the most nominated drama series at the 63rd TV Week Logie Awards. Season two of “The Twelve” will be eight 1-hour episodes written by Sarah Walker, Anchuli Felicia King, Anya Beyersdorf and Anna Barnes. Local authorities in Western Australia described it as the state’s “biggest-ever screen production,” but divulged no specifics on budget. Filming will take place in the Wheatbelt and Metropolitan regions and create over 100 local jobs, the state government said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival has apologized for its mishandling of the resignation of its executive director Huh Moon-young and related sexual harassment allegations. “We sincerely apologize over the sexual harassment case that occurred in the workplace,” BIFF said in a Korean-language statement on Thursday. (A festival spokesperson said that an English-language statement, along with an update, will be issued in the coming days.) Huh has publicly denied the allegations, though he has not replied to email and telephone requests for comment by Variety.

, Zooey Deschanel is returning to TV as a network star who decides to enter the fitness industry in the third and final season of. Only ET has the first look at Deschanel in character as Kelly as well as other new images of Rose Byrne as Sheila Rubin and Dierdre Friel who plays Greta Hauser in the half-hour Apple TV+ dramedy from creator and executive producer Annie Weisman. According to Deschanel, «Kelly is like Sheila’s shadow side and she challenges her on every level. She’s her frenemy, her foil, her obsession,» the actress tells ET.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief C CGV, a company that is one of the world’s top ten cinema exhibitors and is also a major cinema technology developer, is to raise close to $800 million in order to shore up its finances after a devastating COVID era. The company operates the largest cinema chain in its native South Korea and has significant numbers of screens in Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey and mainland China, with smaller operations in Myanmar and the U.S. It also owns CJ 4DPlex, which developed the technology for films to be augmented with practical effects, including motion-seats, wind, strobe-lights, simulated-snow, and scents. In addition, its ScreenX system provides screenings that use the side walls of an auditorium to create a 270-degree sensory experience.

Netflix has turned one of its most successful TV series into a reality show, where contestants could win a £3.5 million prize.

The war in the kitchen is over, for now.  Season 2 of FX’s “The Bear” is not about head chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), his co-owner cousin Richie (Eben Moss-Bachrach), and sous chef Sydney (by long-reigning series MVP Ayo Edibiri) commandeering a lively Chicago beef kitchen as if it were a battleship, ordering their fellow chefs to fire up every chicken they’ve got or to make giardiniera from scratch.

With “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” Mads Mikkelsen plays yet another bad guy in a blockbuster. This time, he’s Jürgen Voller, an ex-Nazi physicist on the hunt for an artifact Harrison Ford‘s Jones also wants to find.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Prisma,” the groundbreaking Amazon Italian original series centered around identical adolescent teen twins who challenge gender norms in different ways, has been renewed for a second season. The second installment of the show is being financed and distributed under a different business model than the first season with Germany’s Beta Film now coming on board as a co-financier and international distributor outside Italy. Shooting is underway in and around the city of Latina, just south of Rome, on “Prisma” season two with director Ludovico Bessegato back at the helm. Bessegato, who previously gained local prominence as showrunner of “Skam Italia” – the hit Italian adaptation of the Nordic young adult drama – also serves as writer of “Prisma” 2. He is now working with Francesca Scialanca following his collaboration with writer Alice Urciuolo on the first installment that launched last year from the Locarno Film Festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Killing Romance,” one of the most creative Korean films of the past year, has been set as the opening night title for the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival. The deliberately multi-genre picture tells the tale of a beautiful movie star with dubious acting skills (portrayed by Le Ha-nee) who suddenly quits the industry and retires to newly-married life that turns out to be anything but bliss. When she decides to return to acting she teams up with a fan and an absurd plot to kill her absurdly rich husband. The film is directed by Lee Won-suk who previously attended the NYAFF with his first film, “How to Use Guys With Secret Tips,” in 2013 and returned with his second feature, the big-budget period drama The Royal Tailor, which earned the audience award at NYAFF in 2015.

New plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning Paula Vogel and Obie-winning Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will be among the Broadway offering of the Second Stage Theater 2023-24 season, the company announced today.

Physical: 100 will return for a second season.Physical: 100 is a survival show where a hundred men and women with well-developed physiques compete in various challenges to determine the one contestant with the “perfect” physique. The first season debuted in January 2023 and became Netflix’s first unscripted show to top the streamer’s list of most-popular non-English TV programs.In a press release today (June 14), Netflix confirmed that Physical: 100 has been renewed for a second season and will feature a new group of 100 contestants.

Physical: 100, which made history earlier this year by becoming the first unscripted show to top Netflix’s weekly ranking for non-English TV programs, has been picked up for a second season.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Seoul Metropolitan Police on Tuesday raided the offices of Korea’s three leading multiplex cinema operators and three film distributors. “The six entities are accused of obstructing the business of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) by falsely counting the audience numbers for Korean films,” a spokesman for the police is reported to have told Korean media, according to the semi-official Yonhap news agency. The raids were conducted by the force’s anti-corruption and public crime investigation team. Local media named the companies visited by the police on Tuesday as cinema chains CJ CGV, Megabox and Lotte Cinema, and distributors Showbox, Lotte Entertainment and Kidari.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean-produced crime action film “The Roundup: No Way Out” dominated proceedings at the South Korean cinema box office for the second successive weekend. Its massive haul now totals $60 million. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” opened with a puny second place. The Friday to Sunday period saw the film bring in $10.4 million from 1.32 million ticket sales and account for a 72% market share, according to data from Kobis, the data tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Including pre-release previews and strong midweek sales, the film has now rushed on to an aggregate of $59.6 million that has been earned from 7.78 million spectators.

Next stop for HBO’s “The White Lotus” series could be Australia, creator Mike White said

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Roman Polanski’s “The Palace” has been set for release in Italian theatres in September, prompting speculation that the controversial director’s black comedy set in a posh hotel in the Swiss Alps resort of Gstaad on the eve of the new millennium could be launching from the Venice Film Festival. Italy’s RAI Cinema, which is a main backer of Polanski’s new film, has slated a September 28 local release date via its 01 Distribuzione unit for “The Palace” which has an ensemble cast including Mickey Rourke, John Cleese and Fanny Ardant. Other key cast members include German actor Oliver Masucci (“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”); Portugal’s Joaquin De Almeida; the U.K.’s Bronwyn James (“The Dig”) and Italy’s Fortunato Cerlino (”Gomorrah”).